Next Up for Gay-Bashers: Ban Gay Adoption of Highways

[Don Davis]

http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=4715

[Newsjock]

1. Too late; reality already has intruded

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/adoptahighway-dispute-pits-gay-coalition-against-governor-665882.html

Friday, 17 August 2001

Across America, "adopting" a stretch of highway – agreeing to pay for basic maintenance and litter removal – is a useful way for private companies and non-profit groups to do their civic duty and get some positive publicity into the bargain. At least that's what the Sioux Empire Gay and Lesbian Coalition thought when it volunteered to adopt two miles of State Highway 38 west of Sioux Falls in South Dakota.

There was, however, a problem. Perhaps because rural South Dakota is about as conservative as the conservative American heartland gets, the group was told it was welcome to pay for the upkeep of the road but could not have the customary sign to acknowledge its contribution. According to the state Department of Transportation, a gay and lesbian organisation is an "advocacy group" and thus ineligible for display on public highways.

The coalition was not amused. This week, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, it filed suit in the Federal Court alleging violations of its right to free speech and equal protection. Its members argued: if nudists in Florida can adopt a highway, and Wiccans in New Jersey and even – in a notorious case – the Ku Klux Klan in Missouri, why not a gay and lesbian group in South Dakota?

[HopeFor2006]

2. Well, we can't have a gay and lesbian coalition cleaning the highways....

You know what that could lead to. :wtf:

[lapfog_1]

3. Uh... a litter free 2 mile stretch of highway?? Just a guess. - n/t

[BR_Parkway]

4. one fabulous stretch of highway? I guess it would put the other ones

to shame.